“India has made a remarkable improvement in perceived quality”
By Freddie Holmes2025-03-17T17:49:00
Car Design News chats to a growing Indian consultancy that is finding plenty of work as a specialist in perceived quality
Indian car manufacturing and design has come on leaps and bounds over the last decade or two. Now with a solid base from which to work, the focus is turning to some of the more enigmatic themes of perceived quality (PQ) and finding factors that delight, not dismay.
Amit Sharma is head of specialist consultancy Karigari. He has seen plenty of issues over his time in the industry but recognises a real growth in awareness, sparked in his eyes by the work of Tata Motors and in turn JLR, but also the likes of Mahindra and some of the larger two-wheeler brands in India. “PQ in an Indian context is still very new,” he says. “What we learned from JLR some 15 years back was the baseline of craftsmanship, material quality, functional excellence and basically anything to do with your senses; the attributes that influence whether you buy a product or not.”
Earlier in his career as a PQ specialist, Sharma recalls…